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Sanitary towels are expensive. This week, a major retail pharmacy had a pack of 20 Always normal pads marked down to R42.
It's not surprising that, in 2010, a survey conducted by Stats SA reported that at least 60 percent of South African girls and women cannot afford them. The challenge is that most schoolgoing girls come from low-income households in which sanitary wear is not a priority.
“When you have to choose between buying Sishebo and bread for supper, equal to the value of the sanitary towels, you are not likely to buy sanitary towels, although both are a very basic need,” said Cheryl Hlabane, the centre manager of the Frida Hartley shelter for destitute women and girls in Johannesburg.
But finally, the government is doing something about this.
On Thursday, Minister of Women Susan Shabangu will host a “consultative indaba” on the draft national policy framework that looks to provide free sanitary towels for young women and girls.
The indaba will see more than 200 stakeholders – inclusive of the government, the private sector, chapter nine institutions as well as a number of non-government and community organisations – gather to discuss the processes of ensuring that the policy is implemented.
The department’s director of communication, Shavana Mushwana, explained that the financing of the sanitary towels would come from the “next fiscus budget”.
The sanitary towels the department intended providing would be disposable and locally manufactured.
But Hlabane would encourage the government to make both disposable and recyclable sanitary towels available to meet the preferences of all women.
The Frida Harley shelter caters for more than 27 women and 19 young girls.
“It really gets very complicated because sometimes some women need more than one pack of sanitary towels a month depending on their flow.”
But Mushwane said that identifying those who the sanitary towels will be distributed to is a process that is still to be discussed.
“Hopefully tomorrow the meeting with the various stakeholders will result in the formation of a committee that will draw up a list to define who qualifies for the sanitary towels. But it is still a long process that has to go through various structures for approval before it is implemented.”
Mushwana couldn’t give an indication as to how long it would take for women to actually start receiving these sanitary products.
“We did not specify a timeline. The formulation process was coordinated by the department of women but included a few key national departments, such as social development, basic education, trade and industry and health.”
He added that the Cabinet and Parliamentary schedule process was set, so the process had to happen within their timelines.
Hlabane believed that the government was very good at drawing up policies “but the reality of them being implemented and reaching the people who need them the most is very limited ... They should stop focusing on literature and act.”
The Indaba will take place at Ditsong Cultural Museum, GaMahole Building in Pretoria from 8am to 5pm.
